


The Least of his Problems

by SimpleSeth



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Genre: Gen, Let's try to portray the SDF kindly, Overlord Protag, after Despot ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-19 17:45:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1478494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimpleSeth/pseuds/SimpleSeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has been a year since Kazuya left to battle God and Atsuro has spent it avoiding the SDF in the Hills building with the two least-human people he has ever met and, to be honest, at this point it would just be easier to get arrested and eat some food that isn't ready-made for once.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Ordinary Morning in the Hills Building

Atsuro had no idea why he had not left already. Kazuya was gone, after all, and there was no way to bring him back. 

Atsuro had thought that they were doing the right thing. Sure, Kaido was kinda scary and Naoya's ambitions were more than questionable, but they would still be saving humanity, and it was more than enough to just have a part in that. 

But, after Babel, Kazuya started to change. He started to act like he didn't care about the very people that he had sworn to save, like they didn't matter anymore, and that terrified Atsuro far more than anything else. 

Atsuro had always trusted his friend with the decisions, though, so he kept following him. Even if he seemed to be forgetting what it was like to be human inside, even if he trusted his cousin-brother?-far more than he did his best friend, Kazuya always knew best. 

And when the King of Bel left the human realm for that of demons, what was Atsuro to doubt his choices? Surely he was making the right choice, surely he was doing the thing that would save more people than hurt them, surely he was doing the best thing. 

Now, though, it had been more than a year, and still Atsuro had not seen his once-friend a single time. Instead, he had stayed holed up in the Hills building, surrounded by demons and two people who weren't really people, in hiding from the government. 

At first, the SDF had tried blasting its way in, and after their inevitable failure turned to using megaphones and hostages as a method to force the "terrorists" out. That too was ineffective, and at this point there were just a few soldiers stationed around the area. They had more important things to do. 

Atsuro sighed, stood from his curled-up position against the wall, and stretched. Moping wouldn't do anything at this stage, nor would it have at any, really. He had done his best to keep an optimistic viewpoint about the whole thing, and while it was getting more and more difficult to feel even somewhat positive about much of anything, there where always small things to be happy about. 

Happy things such as the fact that today the three allies of demons would be eating some delicious instant soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Atsuro was the first up, so he got to eat the morning meal first, check to make sure that Kazuya hadn't miraculously returned while they slept, and charge his COMP once again. Kaido and Naoya both slept like the dead, so there was no reason to worry about making noise while he conversed with some of the demons who had been watching while they slept. 

Today, however, they were suspiciously absent. 

Atsuro drank his soup from a cracked mug that a Cait Sith had scrounged up as he thought about the issue. It was obviously unusual but there had to be a logical explanation for the issue. 

Before he could think any deeper about it, though, his pondering was interrupted by a noise coming from the stairwell door. _Must be the demons,_ he thought while he opened the door and was greeted by a heavily-armored member of the SDF.


	2. Recovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for copious amounts of run-on sentences.

Atsuro found the small room that the SDF gave him to be calming. It was nice to not be surrounded by demons, living off of instant or ready-made food that tasted like shit. 

Having to talk to them sometimes was a small price to pay for the slightest peace of mind that he could get, and sometimes he could even convince himself that there was nothing to worry about, no reason to feel constantly on edge, constantly worried. 

Izuna was the kindest of them, since she knew Atsuro and she had known Kazuya when he was still Kazuya and had trusted them (and Yuzu too) to do _something_ and what they had done was certainly something. 

Atsuro looked forward to seeing Izuna, to talking with her about his guilt and his nightmares, where he saw Kazuya and he tried to talk to him, but his friend was too busy killing people, ordinary, desperate people, and they were surrounded by blood and there were organs all about and Kazuya was smiling in a cruel, hurtful way and Atsuro knew that he had seen this scene over and over again in real life during one hellish day that ended when Metatron--the voice of God!--was absolutely destroyed, utterly annihilated by his hands. 

Otherwise, though, it was fine. There was no problem talking to the people and telling them the same things over and over, that Kazuya made the decision, that they all thought that what they were doing was right, that Yuzu and Keisuke and Midori all left because they didn't think it was right, that he didn't want to kill those people, that he just wanted to stay with his friend and that what they had done was right, was right, was right. 

Either it was just repetition, each day was, ever since the demons all up and left that day, to who knows where. Anywhere but here. 

A noise interrupted his thoughts. It was a wave of sound, carrying with it the memories of those days of fighting against unholy threats, the smell of blood, fresh blood, flowing from the wounds that a demon could inflict with its sharp nails and teeth, the sound of fighting and violence that no-one should ever have to hear, the feel of the COMP beneath his fingers, familiar with the object already, comfortable and the pressing of buttons to summon his demons as natural as walking or speaking, the sight of the enemy falling underneath him, inevitable death, fate brought to reality, "normality" forever changed, a mind altered, thoughts changing, challenging his decision...and there was the King himself, standing in the doorway, fire raging behind him, a cruel smile dancing on his face and the black cape framing him, making him look somehow awe-inspiring and not ridiculous at all, and Atsuro thought that this was right, this was what should happen, this was not someone, not something that he could avoid, no matter how hard he tried. 

And they left and Kaido and Naoya were standing near the burning building, and the firelight danced over their faces and Atsuro thought that these people were demons, more so than the ones that he had fought with for seven days, a week from Hell leading straight to Hell, a one-way freeway with no-one human to stop him, to guide him, to ask him why he was doing this. 

The King of Bel smiled and said, "Now the world is ours."

**Author's Note:**

> Clearly members of the SDF are trained to climb grueling flights of stairs.


End file.
